AFRICAN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE MEN AND CHRISTIAN HEALING MINISTRIES IN NIGERIAN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY- A COMPARATIVE APPROACH
ABSTRACT
The concept of healing in both African Traditional Religion and Christianity poses serious problems to the understanding of healing in our society. Although the thoughts of both religions concerning healing appear to be same, there is bitter disagreement on the method of healing between the votaries of the two religions. To this effect, African traditional medicine men and the Christian healing ministries do not often agree. For Christian healing ministries, African traditional medicine men are idol worshippers whose aim is to perpetrate evil in the society while the African traditional medicine men regard Christian healing ministries as those who do not live the virtuous life that they preach. This work therefore presents a piece of work which drives out the looming clouds surrounding the healing practice in the two religions. With this we can see the two sides of healing in each of the religion and then make recommendations for reconciliation. This work is made up of five chapters. The first chapter gives the clues of what the entire work is poised to achieve. Chapter two deals with the review of the related literature. In the third chapter, who the African traditional medicine men are, what they do and their value in the society are presented while chapter four examines healing practice in the Christian healing ministries. Finally, the last chapter concludes by assessing the whole work and making some suggestions that may help further researchers in exploring more areas yet to be treated and then find possible solutions for proper handling of healing by African traditional medicine men and Christian healing ministries.